Hammond man charged in I-80 worker's death

March 19, 2010

All he saw was a flash of yellow.

And in an instant, the man with whom Eugene Pratchett had spent countless dark nights tediously filling potholes was gone.

Christopher Jenkins' yellow construction vest was lying on the ground in a pool of red. A car had slammed into Jenkins in a construction zone on Interstate Highway 80 in northwest Indiana with such force that Jenkins had flown through the windshield and onto the front seat, police said.

Pratchett had been standing no more than an arm's length from his friend and co-worker.

"My hand to God, I don't know why I'm not dead," Pratchett said in a telephone interview Friday. "I was standing close enough to him to hold his hand."

Robert Shannon, 35, a native of Calumet City, was charged Friday with reckless homicide and failure to stop at a fatal crash. If convicted, the Hammond resident faces up to 16 years in prison, officials said.

The charges came on the same day as the funeral for Jenkins, a 45-year-old father of two.

Shannon's Indiana license has been suspended four times since 1998, including once for refusing to take a breath test, state authorities said.

Even so, Joan Kulppi, Shannon's mother, can't bring herself to believe the son she raised to lend a helping hand to anyone who needed it was driving while drunk. She believes he fell asleep.

"This incident did not happen on purpose," said Kulppi, breaking down in tears. "I'm very sorry for the family. It's unbelievable. God bless them, but he didn't do it intentionally."

Pratchett, who said he was enraged at the sight of his friend's violent death early Tuesday, said he stood in front of the car to block the driver from fleeing.

Pratchett said Shannon whispered, "My life is over." As Shannon began to flee on foot, the car, still in drive, began rolling toward the only lane open to traffic, Pratchett said. At that moment he had to make a decision over which he is still agonizing: Chase the driver down or stop his car from plowing into a semitrailer truck?

He took the wheel of the car, forced his foot on the brake and watched the driver disappear.

Indiana State Police spent 21 hours tracking down Shannon, who was hiding out in an alley in Lake Station, just miles from the crash.

Authorities released a mug shot showing the right side of his face covered in cuts.